Privacy Policy — VOTAVI Survey

Last updated: 4 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how the VOTAVI Survey app (the “App”) collects, uses, and protects your personal data. The App is part of an academic mobility-research study. We are committed to protecting your privacy and to processing your data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1. Data Controller

The controller responsible for data processing within the meaning of the GDPR is:

Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering

Postal address:
Arcisstraße 21
80333 München, Germany

Visiting address:
Transportation Systems Engineering
Parkring 37, 1st floor (above Edeka)
85748 Garching, Germany

Tel: +49 89 28910460
Fax: +49 89 28910469
Email: [email protected]

Data Protection Officer: Dr. Fabian Franzen, Email: [email protected]

2. What Data We Collect and Why

We only collect data that is necessary for the research study, and only with your explicit consent. The App does not use your data for advertising and does not track you across other apps or websites.

Data	Purpose	Legal basis
Location data (precise and coarse, including in the background)	Automatically detect and classify your trips (routes, transport modes, timing) to analyze travel behavior for the study.	Consent — Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR
Motion & activity data (accelerometer / motion sensors)	Improve accuracy of automatic trip and transport-mode detection.	Consent — Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR
Survey responses & in-app activity	Scientific analysis of travel behavior and preferences.	Consent — Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR
Participant identifier / token	Associate your survey responses and mobility data with your (pseudonymous) participation, without using your name.	Consent — Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR
Email address (optional)	Only collected if provided for the lottery or incentives, and used solely to contact you regarding these.	Consent — Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR

Why background location? To record trips automatically while your phone is in a pocket or bag, the App needs the “Always” location permission and background location access. Without it, trips could only be recorded while the App is open, which would not work for the study. You are asked for this permission during onboarding and can change or revoke it at any time in your device Settings.

Tracking period. Active location and motion tracking for each participant is planned to run for approximately 6 months, in line with the study proposal. You can stop tracking earlier at any time, as described in Section 7.

3. Pseudonymization

Your data is stored under a pseudonymous participant identifier rather than your name. We do not ask for your real name to use the App. The email address (if provided for lottery or incentives) is the only directly identifying information and is kept separate from the research dataset wherever possible and used only for that purpose.

4. Recipient Categories (Basics)

We use the following categories of recipients / service providers under data-processing agreements:

MotionTag GmbH (Germany) — provides the mobility-tracking SDK integrated in the App that collects and processes location and motion data to detect trips. See MotionTag’s privacy information at motiontag.com.
Survey platform (LimeSurvey) — surveys are presented in an in-app web view. The LimeSurvey instance is self-hosted in Germany.
Research backend / hosting (Hetzner Online GmbH) — study servers operated at traffics.app are hosted with Hetzner Online GmbH, on servers located in Nuremberg, Germany, and store the research data securely.

We do not sell your data and do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

5. Data Storage, Security, and Transfers

All data is processed within the EU/EEA (Germany); no personal data is transferred outside the EU/EEA.

Specific Technical and Organizational Measures in place include:

Encryption of data in transit via HTTPS/TLS (TLS 1.2/TLS 1.3);
Storage of research data on secured servers hosted in Germany (Hetzner Online GmbH);
Pseudonymisation: mobility and survey data are linked to participants via a unique pseudonymous identifier (UserId) assigned at enrolment; no real name is required. Optional lottery contact data (email address), where collected, is kept separate from the research dataset and used solely for the prize draw;
Access control: access to systems and data is restricted to authorized persons, and access rights for staff and researchers are assigned and withdrawn as needed;
Secured access to the server and research IT environment (including secure remote access where used) and protected local networks;
Regular backups of research data, with protected storage of backup copies;
Data-processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR) with the processors listed in Section 4. Surveys are operated via a self-hosted LimeSurvey instance in Germany.

6. Data and Deletion

Personal (pseudonymous) research data — including survey responses and smartphone mobility data — is retained for 5 years after the end of the project.

Reasoning for this erasure/retention period: this window allows the research data to remain available for scientific verification, replication, and analysis (in line with good scientific practice), and gives participants a reasonable amount of time to exercise their right to erasure after the study has concluded, before the dataset is anonymized.

After this 5-year period, the personal data is fully anonymized. An anonymized extract of the data (e.g., for statistical or scientific publication) may also be created earlier and retained beyond this period; because anonymized data no longer relates to an identifiable person, it is not personal data under the GDPR and the retention limit above does not apply to it.

Email addresses collected for the lottery or incentives are deleted immediately after the prize draw or incentive payment is completed, independent of the retention period above.

7. Your Rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you (Art. 15);
Request rectification of inaccurate data (Art. 16);
Request erasure of your data (Art. 17);
Request restriction of processing (Art. 18);
Data portability (Art. 20);
Object to processing (Art. 21);
Withdraw your consent at any time (Art. 7(3)), without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

You can stop location tracking at any time from within the App’s settings or by revoking permissions in your device Settings. To exercise any of the above rights, contact us at [email protected].

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular the Bavarian Data Protection Commissioner (Der Bayerische Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz, BayLfD), which is the competent authority for public bodies such as TUM:

Der Bayerische Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz (BayLfD)
Postfach 22 12 19, 80502 München, Germany
Website: www.datenschutz-bayern.de

8. Children

The App is not directed at children and is intended for study participants aged 18 or older.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated in the App or on this page, and the “Last updated” date above will be revised.

10. Contact

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact:
[email protected]